Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Voters in Gary showed up with valid registration cards but were inexplicably left off the voting rolls. At first they were turned away. Then, when the county elections office decided to start letting people vote but to track them in a log to confirm their voting eligibility, two Republican attorneys who had been at multiple polling sites over the course of the day began challenging every one of these voters.

The challenges forced each voter to vote a provisional ballot, which means it won't be counted unless the voter returns within ten days to confirm his/her eligibility. This despite the voters furnishing a valid registration form -- further evidence that the Indiana ID requirements are far too stringent and restrictive (see our recent reports for more), that voter challenges need to be restricted to prevent blanket challenges designed to suppress the vote, and also apparently that Indiana needs to dedicate more resources to handling a rush of new voters and making sure all registered voters onto the voting rolls properly.